Double Digit Losses Sweep Crypto Asset Market

The cryptocurrency markets are a sea of red today, with all the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap reporting double-digit percentage losses for the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin has dropped 16 % over the same period to 10-week lows below $8,000 and could suffer its worst weekly loss (more than 25 %) since April 2013. The cryptocurrency suffered a 30-percent drop in January and is down 45 % on a year-to-date basis.

Ethereum’s ether token is down by 28 %. The cryptocurrency had looked relatively resilient earlier this week, reportedly due to institutional capital flows and Venezuela’s decision to presale petro cryptocurrency on the ethereum platform. However, the bull grip looks to have weakened and ETH was last seen trading around $785.

Meanwhile, Ripple’s XRP token ranks third on the list of losers with a 35 percent drop. The cryptocurrency has now fallen to $0.635 – its lowest level since Dec. 15. That follows XRP’s bad start to the year, with a 49 percent fall during January.

Overall, the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies taken together has dropped more than $100 billion.

Further down the chart, striking a rare positive note amid the gloom and doom, a gold-backed token named DigixDAO (DGD) stands out after having posted 30 percent gains.